Indiana lawmakers passed a hate-crime bill Thursday that some of its original proponents called watered down, the Indy Star reports. The bill, which would allow a judge to generally consider bias when determining the severity of a sentence, passed the Indiana state Senate on a 39-10 vote. Two of the bill’s writers, Sen. Ron Alting (R) […]
Kansas state representatives introduced legislation Wednesday that would define same-sex marriage as “parody marriage” and would prohibit the state from recognizing same-sex marriages or transgender people. The bill seeks to establish an “elevated marriage” for straight couples, according to the Wichita Eagle. The legislation would also allow controversial gay “conversion therapy” which seeks to change a […]
The New York state legislature on Tuesday passed the most comprehensive set of gun control bills in the state since 2013, according to The New York Times. The measures approved included ones to prohibit bump stocks and to bar teachers from carrying guns in schools, the Times reported. Another measure extends the waiting period for individuals […]
A black Detroit man is suing three white women for damages after they allegedly called police multiple times to stop him from visiting a public park in his old neighborhood, NBC News reported Tuesday. The 33-year-old Marc Peeples claimed in a lawsuit that Deborah Nash, Martha Callahan and Jennifer Morris fabricated complaints to the Detroit Police between July 2017 […]
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) this week granted clemency to a woman serving a life sentence for killing her abusive ex-boyfriend. Cleveland.com reported Wednesday that Thomia Hunter’s lawyer, Tiffany Smith, received Kasich’s letter officially commuting Hunter’s sentence. Hunter was convicted in 2005 of murdering her ex-boyfriend, Andrew Harris, and served 15 years in prison. She […]
Republican state lawmakers in Wisconsin agreed to pass a resolution honoring prominent African-American figures during Black History Month only after they reportedly blocked the measure until their black Democratic counterparts agreed to remove Colin Kaepernick’s name. State Rep. Jim Steineke (R), the majority leader of the Wisconsin state Assembly, said his fellow Republicans wouldn’t support the […]
Chicago crews are using fire along the city’s commuter railroad track to keep the switches from freezing as the city is plunged into record-breaking frigid temperatures. The cold weather, snow and ice clog the switches, leading to halted trains and severe delays in service, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday. Metro workers are using a gas-fed […]
All three of Virginia’s statewide elected leaders are fighting to save their political lives in the midst of a rapidly evolving series of crises that threatens both their own survival and their party’s electoral chances later this year. In a state saddled by racial tensions after centuries of slavery and generations of Jim Crow, both […]
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (D) on Wednesday said he had worn blackface to a party while he was an undergraduate in college, deepening a political crisis that has now ensnared the three top officials in the Commonwealth’s government. In a statement released Wednesday, minutes after Herring held an emergency meeting with the state legislative […]
A Democratic state legislator in Kentucky proposed an amendment to require women to report pregnancies each month to the state to raise awareness of Republican anti-abortion bills she called unnecessary and intrusive. Kentucky Rep. Mary Lou Marzian (D) filed the proposal that would require women of childbearing age to provide a notarized doctor’s statement to the state […]